HOCKEY: THE Deeside Ramblers' men's third team topped a century of goals for the season on Saturday.

They thrashed Bramhall seconds 7-0 and the 100th goal came from Mike Cooper, with others by Guy Fennell, Justin Newboy (2) and Hedley Pollard (3).

The first team had a rousing encounter with Brooklands before losing 2-1 to virtually end their promotion hopes. They were 2-0 down at the break but hit back with one from Jimmy Lewis.

The seconds kept their promotion hopes alive with a 2-1 win at Bebington, where Phil Brown scored both goals.

Deeside fourths were two down well into the second half but closed the gap with a Chris Marmion goal, while the sixth team, 5-0 up at the break, finished 6-3 winners against Bowdon sevenths. Alistair McGauliffe and Mike Verity scored hat-tricks.

Deeside Ramblers Ladies gave their best performance of the season to beat Driffield 2-0, thanks to goals from Nikki Gray and Amy Mullock, while the seconds shared six goals with Worksop, thanks to Hilary Tweed (2) and Kate Etherington.

The ladies' third team beat Whitchurch firsts by the odd goal in five with Ali Rae, Karen Leech and Dilys Dodds making their mark.

Ramblers' men's first team meet Doncaster at home tomorrow at 3pm following the ladies' second-team game against Broome. Chester beat Durham University 3-0 away on Saturday with a much-improved performance. Goals came from Ian Warren (2) and Rob Mason.

And on Sunday, Chester beat Tynemouth at home 7-0 with an impressive display of attacking hockey.

The seconds lost 5-1 to Southport in a match much closer than the score suggests. Before the match, Southport were 30 points ahead of Chester and are odds-on favourites to be promoted as champions, so Chester could be proud that for long periods of the game they were in control. The difference was Southport were able to take their chances.

Chester thirds will, for a second consecutive season, narrowly miss out on promotion after losing a tough game at promotion rivals Crewe by the odd goal in seven. Chester's goals came from midfielder Mark Harnden, who scored an excellent hat-trick for the second time in two weeks.

Chester sixths were thrashed 11-0 by Manchester Trinity thirds, who were 8-0 up at the break.

With promotion in sight, Chester Ladies were too good for Blackburn and won 3-1. After a goalless first half, Chester really put on a great performance. Tess Whieldon made a crucial defensive tackle which started the attack that led to Chester's first goal by Michelle Daltry, who went on to lob the ball skilfully over the keeper to double the lead.

As the pressure built up on a tired Blackburn side, the last 10 minutes was all in Chester's attacking half. Fran Neil struck the ball from a short corner as it headed goalwards and Sam Queck got a final touch to give Chester a 3-0 victory.

Chester seconds put on a good performance against league leaders Oxton but lost 4-1. Their goal came from a short corner by Laura Wilson with Amie Devlin getting the final touch.

Chester fourths, in their first game for three weeks, lost 4-1 to Neston with Jess Egan scoring following a pass from Jane Parkyn. Despite a slightly depleted team, Chester showed great defensive strength and Jenny Gaskell, in goal, was PoM.